尾一封来自伯明翰监狱的信Letter from a Birmingham Jail

2021年1月21日发(作者：狠狠发)
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
16 April 1963
My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement
calling
my present
activities

and
untimely.

Seldom
do
I
pause to
answer
criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my
desk,
my
secretaries
would
have
little
time
for
anything
other
than
such
correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive
work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms
are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be
patient and reasonable terms.
I
think
I
should
indicate
why
I
am
here
in
Birmingham,
since
you
have
been
influenced by the view which argues against
of
serving
as
president
of
the
Southern
Christian
Leadership
Conference,
an
organization
operating
in
every
southern
state,
with
headquarters
in
Atlanta,
Georgia.

We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them
is
the
Alabama
Christian
Movement
for
Human
Rights.
Frequently
we
share
staff,
educational
and
financial
resources
with
our
affiliates.
Several
months
ago
the
affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct
action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the

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hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff,
am
here
because
I
was
invited
here.
I
am
here
because
I
have
organizational
ties
here.
But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets
of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their
beyond
the
boundaries
of
their
home
towns,
and
just
as
the
Apostle
Paul
left
his
village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco
Roman
world,
so
am
I
compelled
to
carry
the
gospel
of
freedom
beyond
my
own
home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Moreover,
I
am
cognizant
of
the
interrelatedness
of
all
communities
and
states.I
cannot
sit
idly
by
in
Atlanta
and
not
be
concerned
about
what
happens
in
ice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We
are
caught
in
an
inescapable
network
of
mutuality,
tied
in
a
single
garment
of
destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford
to
live
with
the
narrow,
provincial

agitator
idea. Anyone
who
lives
inside
the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.
You deplore the
demonstrations
taking place
in
Birmingham.
But
your
statement,
I
am
sorry
to
say,
fails
to
express
a
similar
concern
for
the
conditions
that
brought
about
the
demonstrations.
I
am
sure that
none
of
you
would
want
to rest
content
with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not
grapple
with
underlying
causes.
It
is
unfortunate
that
demonstrations
are
taking
place
in
Birmingham,
but
it
is
even
more
unfortunate
that
the
city's
white
power

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structure left the Negro community with no alternative.
In
any
nonviolent
campaign
there
are
four
basic
steps:
collection
of
the
facts
to
determine
whether
injustices
exist;
negotiation;
self
purification;
and
direct

have
gone
through
all
these
steps
in

can
be
no
gainsaying
the
fact
that
racial
injustice
engulfs
this
gham
is
probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United ugly record of
brutality is widely s have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the
courts.
There
have
been
more
unsolved
bombings
of
Negro
homes
and
churches
in
Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of
the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with
the
city
fathers.
But
the
latter
consistently
refused
to
engage
in
good
faith
negotiation.
Then,
last
September,
came
the
opportunity
to
talk
with
leaders
of
Birmingham's
economic the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made
by the merchants--for example, to remove the stores' humiliating racial the
basis
of
these
promises,
the
Reverend
Fred
Shuttlesworth
and
the
leaders
of
the
Alabama
Christian
Movement
for
Human
Rights
agreed
to
a
moratorium
on
all

the
weeks
and
months
went
by,
we
realized
that
we
were
the
victims
of
a
broken
promise.A
few
signs,
briefly
removed,
returned;
the
others

in
so
many
past
experiences,
our
hopes
had
been
blasted,
and
the
shadow
of
deep
disappointment
settled
upon

had
no
alternative
except
to

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prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of
laying
our
case
before
the
conscience
of
the
local
and
the
national
l of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of
self began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly
asked ourselves:


you
able
to
endure
the
ordeal
of
jail?

We
decided
to
schedule
our
direct
action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for Christmas, this is the
main
shopping
period
of
the
year.
Knowing
that
a
strong
economic-withdrawal
program would be the by product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best
time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change.
Then it occurred to us that Birmingham's mayoral election was coming up in March,
and
we
speedily
decided
to
postpone
action
until
after
election
day.
When
we
discovered that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene
up enough votes to be in the run off, we decided again to postpone action until the
day
after
the
run
off
so
that
the
demonstrations
could
not
be
used
to
cloud
the
issues. Like many others, we waited to see Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we
endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need,
we felt that our direct action program could be delayed no longer.
You
may
well
ask:

direct
action?Why
sit
ins,
marches
and
so
forth?Isn't
negotiation a better path?
is the very purpose of direct lent direct action seeks to create such a
crisis
and
foster
such
a
tension
that
a
community
which
has
constantly
refused
to

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negotiate is forced to confront the issue.
It
seeks
so
to
dramatize
the
issue
that
it
can
no
longer
be
ignored.
My
citing
the
creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather
shocking.
But
I
must
confess
that
I
am
not
afraid
of
the
word


I
have
earnestly
opposed
violent
tension,
but
there
is
a
type
of
constructive,
nonviolent
tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to
create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths
and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal,
so
must
we
see
the
need
for
nonviolent
gadflies
to
create
the
kind
of
tension
in
society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the
majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action
program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door
to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has
our
beloved
Southland
been
bogged
down
in
a
tragic
effort
to
live
in
monologue
rather than dialogue.
One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates
have
taken
in
Birmingham
is

have
asked:

didn't
you
give
the
new city administration time to act?
that
the
new
Birmingham
administration
must
be
prodded
about
as
much
as
the
outgoing one, before it will are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of
Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the millennium to Birmingham.
While
Mr.
Boutwell
is
a
much
more
gentle
person
than
Mr.
Connor,
they
are
both

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segregationists,
dedicated
to
maintenance
of
the
status
quo.
I
have
hope
that
Mr.
Boutwell
will
be
reasonable
enough
to
see
the
futility
of
massive
resistance
to
desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights.
My
friends,
I
must
say
to
you
that
we
have
not
made
a
single
gain
in
civil
rights
without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact
that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see
the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr
has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the
oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a
direct
action
campaign
that
was

timed
in
the
view
of
those
who
have
not
suffered
unduly
from
the
disease
of
segregation.
For
years
now
I
have
heard
the
word
has
almost
always
meant


We
must
come
to
see,
with
one
of
our
distinguished jurists, that
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights.
The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political
independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of
coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging
darts of segregation to say,
mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you
have
seen
hate
filled
policemen
curse,
kick
and
even
kill
your
black
brothers
and

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sisters;
when
you
see
the
vast
majority
of
your
twenty
million
Negro
brothers
smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when
you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to
explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park
that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when
she
is
told
that
Funtown
is
closed
to
colored
children,
and
see
ominous
clouds
of
inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort
her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when
you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking:
white people treat colored people so mean?
and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your
automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and
day
out
by
nagging
signs
reading

and

when
your
first
name
becomes
last name becomes
title
are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect
next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever
fighting a degenerating sense of
it
difficult
to
wait.
There
comes
a
time
when the
cup
of endurance
runs
over,
and
men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.
I hope, sirs, you
can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. You express a great deal

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of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern.
Since
we
so
diligently
urge
people
to
obey
the
Supreme
Court's
decision
of
1954
outlawing
segregation
in
the
public
schools,
at
first
glance
it
may
seem
rather
paradoxical
for
us
consciously
to
break
laws.
One
may
well
ask:

can
you
advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?
there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying
just
laws.
One
has
not
only
a
legal
but
a
moral
responsibility
to
obey
just
laws.
Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with
St. Augustine that
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a
law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law
or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.
To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not
rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just.
Any
law
that
degrades
human
personality
is
unjust.
All
segregation
statutes
are
unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the
segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority.
Segregation,
to
use
the
terminology
of
the
Jewish
philosopher
Martin
Buber,
substitutes an
persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically
and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin
is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation,

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his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey
the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to
disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.
Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws.
An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority
group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By
the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and
that
it
is
willing
to
follow
itself.
This
is
sameness
made
legal.
Let
me
give
another
explanation. A
law
is unjust
if
it
is
inflicted
on a
minority
that,
as
a result of
being
denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say
that
the
legislature
of
Alabama
which
set
up
that
state's
segregation
laws
was
democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used
to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in
which,
even
though
Negroes
constitute
a
majority
of
the
population,
not
a
single
Negro
is
registered.
Can
any
law
enacted
under
such
circumstances
be
considered
democratically structured?
Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have
been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong
in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance
becomes
unjust
when
it
is
used
to
maintain
segregation
and
to
deny
citizens
the
First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.
I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out.

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In
no
sense
do
I
advocate
evading
or
defying
the
law,
as
would
the
rabid
segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so
openly,
lovingly,
and
with
a
willingness
to
accept
the
penalty.
I
submit
that
an
individual
who
breaks
a
law
that
conscience
tells
him
is
unjust,
and
who
willingly
accepts
the
penalty
of
imprisonment
in
order
to
arouse
the
conscience
of
the
community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
Of
course,
there
is
nothing
new
about
this
kind
of
civil
disobedience.
It
was
evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the
laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was
practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and
the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of
the
Roman
Empire.
To
a
degree,
academic
freedom
is
a
reality
today
because
Socrates
practiced
civil
disobedience.
In
our
own
nation,
the
Boston
Tea
Party
represented a massive act of civil disobedience.
We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was
everything
the
Hungarian
freedom
fighters
did
in
Hungary
was

It
was

Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and
comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain
principles
dear
to
the
Christian
faith
are
suppressed,
I
would
openly
advocate
disobeying that country's antireligious laws.
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I

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must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the
white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's
great
stumbling
block
in
his
stride
toward
freedom
is
not
the
White
Citizen's
Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to

to
a
positive
peace
which
is
the
presence
of
justice;
who
constantly
says:

agree
with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action
who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom;
who
lives
by
a
mythical
concept
of
time
and
who
constantly
advises
the
Negro
to
wait for a
will
is
more
frustrating
than
absolute
misunderstanding
from
people
of
ill
will.
Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for
the
purpose
of
establishing
justice
and
that
when
they
fail
in
this
purpose
they
become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had
hoped
that
the
white
moderate
would
understand
that
the
present
tension
in
the
South
is
a
necessary
phase
of
the
transition
from
an
obnoxious
negative
peace,
in
which
the
Negro
passively
accepted his unjust plight, to a
substantive and
positive
peace,
in
which
all
men
will
respect
the
dignity
and
worth
of
human
personality.
Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension.
We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it
out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be

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cured
so
long
as
it
is
covered
up
but
must
be
opened
with
all
its
ugliness
to
the
natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its
exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion
before it can be cured.
In
your
statement
you
assert
that
our
actions,
even
though
peaceful,
must
be
condemned because they precipitate is this a logical assertion?Isn't this
like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil
act of robbery?
Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and
his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which
they made him drink hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique
God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act
of
crucifixion?
We
must
come
to
see
that,
as
the
federal
courts
have
consistently
affirmed,
it
is
wrong
to
urge
an
individual
to
cease
his
efforts
to
gain
his
basic
constitutional
rights
because
the
quest
may
precipitate
violence.
Society
must
protect the robbed and punish the robber. I had also hoped that the white moderate
would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have
just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes:
that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you
are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years
to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth.
an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational

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